Shop Drawing - Design And Construction

A shop drawing is usually a drawing of any object that is going to be assembled in a shop, away from the job site. The picture below, represents a partial drawing of a set of stairs that's going to be constructed off-site and then brought to the job site to be installed.

A shop drawing usually needs to be approved by an architect, owner's agent or engineer, before it's built. The shop designer's will take a set of plans and use it to design a set of stairs that will need to be approved by someone else. This someone else is usually the person responsible for the construction of the building.

Problems With Shop Drawings

If there is any miscommunication between the shop where the stairway is going to be built and the contractor or person in charge of the buildings construction, you're going to have a problem.

If you're a contractor, superintendent or project manager and someone sends you a shop drawing of anything and you're not paying attention, then you better get ready, because you're about to learn a lesson that you're never going to forget.

Don't let your pride get in the way of your pocketbook. I've seen plenty of contractors and project managers look at shop drawings, in total confusion. Some of them would even go out of their way to find me on the job site, just to find out what they were actually looking at.

Usually I could walk them through the process and if needed, I could take the drawing home and review it. The moral to the story is simple, if you approve a shop drawing and it's incorrect, you could be held liable. If you don't understand what you're looking at, find somebody else who does or contact the company who is providing you with the shop drawing and explain your situation to them.

This is no time to let pride or arrogance get in the way. This simple mistake cost someone I knew, a lot of money. Even though I wasn't financially liable, I learned a lesson that I will never forget and I hope that you won't either.

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